Nearby Theaters

This was a small movie theater inside a shopping center. It opened in 1970 as part of the Jerry Lewis Cinemas chain. Open only 2 or 3 years. I saw “Willy Wonka”, “Kotch” and “Butterflies are Free” there. It is now a retail store.

I know of two other theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area that operated under the Jerry Lewis Cinemas banner. One was the Princeton in South San Jose off Blossom Hill Road and the other was in Antioch(using the Jerry Lewis name). From what I understand, they mostly used rear-projection and were highly automated. Unfortunately, the chain lasted less than 3 years. (And it was during the early 1970’s, when family films and G-rated product did poor box-office business.)

It was to the right of Walgreens. Originally, what is now the big filipino/japanese restaurant was St. Augustine’s church, while they were raising money for the church. The movie theater was one or two doors down. I drove by there and was trying to figure it out, its one of the storefronts with the half-brick facade. The interior has been completely gutted. There have been several tenants over the years. Probably the shoe guy at the end would know, he’s been there since the center was built. All I remember about that place was that they had black and white wallpaper of your old time movie people, laurel and hardy, charlie chaplin. Anyone remember the Kool Cigarette midnight movie series?

I have vivid memories of the Jerry Lewis Cinema off Blossom Hill Road in San Jose. It showed a lot of double features of pretty bad movies—dinosaur flicks and the like. It was pretty much only kids, and the entire afternoon was spent throwing food all over the place—the floors, the seats, the screen. My Dad told my brother and I it closed because of the wear and tear. We loved the place.